Israel vs Hamas: Donald Trump's potential role in Mossad intel failure in spotlight

Former US President Donald Trump's alleged act of sharing classified intelligence with Russian officials in 2017 has come back into the spotlight once again amid an ongoing state of war in Israel after one of the deadliest attacks on the country by Hamas militants.

In 2017, Trump reportedly shared intelligence related to the ISIS plot in West Asia as well as 'flight safety' issues with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in Washington DC. The purported intelligence had reportedly come from Israel.

Back then, concerns were raised that Russia may share the Israeli intelligence details with Iran, a staunch supporter of Hamas as well as the chief backer of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group, Newsweek reported.

This weekend, Hamas, recognised as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, launched one of the deadliest attacks against Israel in decades, resulting in one of the most damaging days of violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Questions raised on Donald Trump's intelligence-sharing moment from 2017

Prominent American commentators hinted at Trump's alleged role in intelligence-sharing with Russia as a potential reason why Hamas was able to dodge the Israeli intelligence network as it went on to launch one of its deadliest attacks on Israel in decades, catching Israelis off-guard.

"This isn't hard to follow," musician and author Mikel Jollett wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Trump gave military intel to the Russians. The Russians, who are extremely close allies with Iran, gave it to Iran. Iran gave that information to Hamas. Hamas used it to attack Israel. This is why intel security matters. Republicans DO NOT CARE."

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Thom Hartmann, author and political commentator, posted on X: "Hamas apparently knew how to get around Israel's Iron Dome defenses. They probably learned this from Iran. Iran almost certainly got the information from Russia. And who gave it to Russia? Sure looks like it was Donald Trump, at the request of Putin."

Israeli officials remain stunned that a Hamas assault of such scale that must have required months of planning and entailed a significant military buildup could not be detected by them.

In his defence, Trump, in 2017, had justified sharing sensitive intelligence with Russia at the White House.

"As president, I wanted to share with Russia (during an openly scheduled WH meeting) facts related to terrorism and airline flight safety, which I have an absolute right to do. This was driven by humanitarian reasons, and I also aimed to encourage Russia to enhance its efforts against ISIS and terrorism."

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